


A Late Night Lesson

by Morieris



Category: Ever After High
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 21:30:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4237335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morieris/pseuds/Morieris





	A Late Night Lesson

Justine Dancer was one of the few princesses at Ever After High with no roommate. 

The other girls in her story - her cousins - had all paired off into their own dorms, and while logically, she should have been paired with the next youngest, Jane, their oldest cousin Anthene had graduated a year previously, leaving them all mismatched.

But she didn’t mind. There was far more space to practice her dancing when she couldn’t get a studio in the Arts Wing of the school or at the Red Shoes Dancing Studio down in the village. Or when Persephone Plum was busy working on the latest play to grace the Charmitorium. Or when she couldn’t stand Duchess Swan looking down her nose at her.

In short, Justine danced a lot in her room. There was a bar installed along the wall in front of several paneled mirrors - there was even a projector she could control with her Mirrorphone, detailing the steps she followed on the floor.

She never thought anyone would see her special setup, let alone a Charming.

 

* * *

 

It had simply been dancing lessons - while Darling had been signed up promptly for ballroom dancing, small, awkward steps in a square were not fun.

The way Justine danced - quickly, agile, as if dodging furious flying sprites - had intrigued her in more than one way. Darling had sent a letter of inquiry, with a bit of input from Cupid;

_Your dancing, My Lady, is most gracious. I, too, am of noble birth, but without your steadfast talent...and if you were to teach me, for payment, I would be most obliged._

She had delivered it outside of Justine’s door late at night, taping it as well as a rose to the door, knocking on the wood and sprinting away in her slippers, lest someone catch and lecture. It wasn’t long before Darling realized that she had forgotten to sign her name or give any way for Justine to actually  _contact_  her, so a hext the next morning quickly followed the cryptic message.

 _[DarlingKnight]: That weird message you got last night_  
_[DarlingKnight]: That was me_  
_[DarlingKnight]: I’d be honored if you’d help me ?_  
_[12thDancer]: Oh that was you?_  
_[12thDancer]:I was  wondering! Like.......ok, sure Darling_  
_[12thDancer]: I don’t care about payment! We’re princesses, what can’t we afford?_

So late that night, they met in one of the dance classrooms. Darling had come in her workout clothes, her long blonde hair in a bun, where Justine had showed up in her tutu and leotard.  


As the pair stretched, Justine leaned back, touching her toes to her head, and asked “So - why did you call upon me instead of another dancer?”

Darling, bent at the waist, easily touching the plywood floor, smiled at her through the loose strands of her hair. “I’ve seen you dance - you’re fast. You know where you’ll land before you’ve even stepped. You’d probably be an amazing Bookball player.”

Justine unraveled, stood to her feet slowly, and walked around on the tips of her toes. “So this is all for an hextracurricular activity?”

“In a way.” Leaving out most of her feelings about societal grievances, Darling outlined how much she would rather fight and defend others than sit around with no accomplishment to her name, having admirers who viewed her as a trophy instead of a capable person.

Justine pursed her lips in thought and clasped her hands together. “Well, I’m no knight - or teacher - but maybe I can teach you something.” 

And with that, the two began.

\----

For a few days a week - normally on the eve of days where class schedules were more lax - Justine and Darling would dance throughout the midnight hour. Security practices were in place to catch wayward students, so quite often they simply danced to Justine’s count of “one, two, three, one, two, three...”

Occasionally they had shared a meal together; They were two high-ranking Princesses, and nothing was out of the ordinary. Justine had no problem with her destiny - she danced at night, and her elder cousin married an older knight. Her destiny alone opened her to any theater troupe she might be interested in after it played out. Hearing how Darling’s destiny was not even that involved surprised her, and she didn’t blame her for wanting to change it up.

Darling had been quite excited to talk to someone still on the Royal side of the Destiny Debate; While Raven was a dear friend, holding in a secret life from most of the world’s population - including her family - taxed her at times.

The lessons continued, with the pair switchings rooms nightly after almost having a janitorial pixie call upon Baba Yaga upon entering  to see them flying across the room. Darling had flipped her hair and Justine had maneuvered the confused pixie into a pile of towels; Both of them had ran back to Darling’s dorm, first in a panic, but then laughing when they had reached safety. 

The lessons were beneficial to Justine as well; Darling taught her some very basic swordfighting moves with a slim, light dummy sword. Even with the dancer’s blossoming ability with the sword, she was able to put up a fair challenge for Darling, who occasionally fought back with her own fake weapon.

The two alternated on Darling trying to hit Justine with a feather duster left by a wayward cleaning elf, and Justine dancing as quickly as she could, trying to hit Darling. The Charming princess was quite use to putting her strength behind her blows, and the first time she had actually smacked Justine on the arm with the feather duster, she had cried out and spun to the ground.

“Justine!” The duster was tossed to the side with a clatter as Darling quickly rushed to her side. “Oh my Godmother, I’m so, so sorry! Please - let me see - “

Justine had shook her arm a bit, showing a welt that was alight with pink sparkles. “Have you any idea what that is...? I think I’d better stop for now -”

“Yes - yes of course - !” They shuffled out of the room, Darling looking carefully around corners to avoid unwelcome visitors. After twenty minutes, the pair were standing in front of Justine’s dorm while she struggled with bringing up her Magikey App on her Mirrorphone. “I’m in no pain or anything,” She said, “It’s just starting to tingle kind of strangely...”

“Please - “ Darling took her phone and tapped it to the wood, the door swinging open easily. She took in the dance bar and the group of mirrors before continuing. “You go sit on that bed, I have a first aid kit in my room - why didn’t I think to bring it before -”

With a quick smile, Darling rushed out of the room and nearly flew down the corridor to her room. Placing her hand upon the door -

“Darling?”

She jumped, and looked around. Curses - it was Dexter, holding a lamp in his hand, shuffling along in his Charming family robe and jackalope slippers. “What are  _you_  doing out of bed?” He curled his free hand into a fist and put it on his hip.

Darling rolled her eyes. “What about  _you_? Are you a guard now?”

Dex blushed. “I - don’t give me that! I just come to check on you sometimes, I mean -”

After a moment of his stammering, the princess cut through icily. “Spare me whatever hover carriage parent excuse you’ve got, there’s an emergency -” The door swung open and the two went inside, lowering their voices to not wake Darling’s roommate, Rosabella.

“Sis? What’s up? Oh, godmother, you’re hurt, aren’t you? That’s it I’m - I’m done, Mom and Dad are going to kill me, they - they only told me to do two things, stay out of Daring’s way and watch out for your sister and -”

“Oh -  _for the love of Ever After_  - !” Quickly, Darling bowed deeply, undid the knot on her head, and threw her hair back. Suddenly, the room was enveloped in a soft white light. When she opened her eyes, she saw Rosabella still sleeping, but breathing a bit slower. Dexter was still going through his crisis wordlessly,slowly, unaware that his sister had slowed time down.

Darling raced to her bed and dived beneath the frilly bedskirt, pulling out a small case before running back out of the door, around the corner, and bursting into Justine’s room.

“It’s still tingling.” She said, as Darling hurriedly dug through her box and took out a can of antiseptic and spraying it onto the wound, and furiously dabbed at it with a strip of gauze. “I’ll live, Darling!” 

The cuckoo clock in the room gave a soft peal; One AM. 

“Well, that’s certainly enough excitement for today already,” Justine patted Darling’s hand in appreciation, “Thanks so much for saving me... Knight Charming.”  she finished, laughing.

Darling rose, grinning. “You’re most welcome - snap, I forgot I froze Dexter - he hates that, ha -” Quickly, she grew serious. Bending on one knee, she took Justine’s dainty brown hand and kissed it lightly. 

Unable to hold it any longer, Darling burst out into a grin and backed out of the room, closing it lightly, the last thing she saw being Justine’s slightly flushed face.

\----

Justine slept a wee bit longer than normal - lucky for her, Dance Class-ic started at 11 AM on Thursdays.

Unluckily, she was no less confused when she awoke.

_Do I like Darling? Of course - she’s kind and protective, and outside of training, she’s a lovely person -_

_Doesn’t she have a prince? What...what would we do?_

And then she recalled something her mother said whenever she voiced her worries;  
_That’s a performance for the future. Concentrate on your steps for today._

Justine reached for her Mirrorphone to see a very recent string of hexts;

 _[DarlingKnight]: About...that..._  
[DarlingKnight]: Sorry  
[DarlingKnight]: For bruising you (Justine had completely forgotten about her injury; She looked at her arm to find the sparkly welt had disappeared, and it felt no worse for the wear.  
_[DarlingKnight]: And kissing you_  
_[DarlingKnight]: When you may not have wanted it so_  
_[DarlingKnight]: If you don’t want to train me anymore I’ll understand_

Justine stared at the screen for a moment before replying;

_[12thDancer]: Tonight - i’ve got something that’ll def. help you.  
[12thDancer]: Meet me @ my dorm._


End file.
